“Come on kids! We’re leaving!” Diana called to everyone.

“Mom, I don’t wanna go,” Jessica came down the stairs.

“Jess, don’t be ridiculous. This has been planned for a while and neither your father or I want to stay here with you. You are going, now go get in the car,” Diana told her daughter.

Jessica glared at her mother. “You let Zac stay home the time we went to the carnival!”

“Jessi, that was the carnival and Zac was sick. You are not sick, and you are going, stop arguing and go get in the car,” Diana instructed.

Reluctantly, Jessi walked out the front door and into the family van where Isaac, Zac, Peachy, Taylor and Avery were already seated.

“I had this really weird dream last night,” Zac said. “It was like…weird. Taylor, you were like, yelling at Ike and Ike was like swimming in this pool. I don’t know. It was weird.”

“Cool,” Taylor said unenthusiastically.

“I think I want to go home,” Isaac said.

“We just got here,” Zac reminded his older brother.

“I don’t care. I want to go home.”

“Oh. Ikey-poos is home sick,” Zac teased.

“And you’re fat!” Jessica said to her brother.

Instead of reiterating back, Zac just glared back at his sister.

The whole group went quiet as Walker and Diana seatbelted the other kids.

"Ike, sweety, you look tired," Diana said.

"I am," he said.

"Are you feeling well?" She asked.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine," he assured.

"Okay," Diana smiled and closed the door.

"Yeah, well anyway, I wanna know what my dream meant. They have those dream interpreter people ladies here, right? Like Gypsies or something," Zac said.

"Why don't you just buy a dream book?" Taylor suggested.

"They make those?" Zac asked.

"How do you think the Gypsies learn all that stuff about dreams? They read about it," Taylor said.

"Oh, and what are you? The Gypsy expert?" Peachy asked.

"Well, they have to learn it somewhere, right?" Taylor said.

"Tay, I don't think even half of them knew how to read," Isaac said.

"Well, Esmerelda did," Taylor mumbled.

"I love Esmerelda!" Mackenzie exclaimed from his car seat. "She's pretty!"

"Zac where are you going?" Taylor asked watching his brother walk away.

"I'm just going over there, I wanna see what's in that building. Don't worry, I'll meet you back here in an hour," Zac said as he walked away.

Taylor turned back to Peachy and Isaac. "He left us to wait in this line alone? Look how long it is! By the time Zac comes back, we won't have moved more than 2 inches."

Peachy laughed. "I feel like every girl here is glaring at me. Wishing me dead," she said.

"Why?" Isaac asked.

"You guys, that's why. Look over there," Peachy nonchalantly pointed to a group of girls sitting at a picnic bench. "They are all looking over here and talking amoungst themselves, saying, 'Who's that girl! I wish she was dead!'"

"No they're not," Isaac said.

"What if they are?" Taylor asked. Without hesitaion, he put his arm around Peachy and looked over at the group of girls. "Who cares."

Isaac laughed, Peachy smiled nervously.

"I'm gonna laugh even harder when a bunch of pictures of you with your arm around Peachy show up on the internet, with the caption 'Taylor has a girlfriend?'"

"Yeah Tay. I don't want that" Peachy said removing Taylor's arm from around her.

"Peach, who cares?" Taylor said.

"Well..." Peachy couldn't think of anything to say.

"For all they know, you could be a cousin, or even Ike's girlfriend. They have no clue who you are."

"But they have ideas."

"Let 'em."

"Oh my God, we're moving," Isaac said watching the people pile onto the ride, "And look, we're next."

The hour passed and Isaac, Taylor and Peachy found themselves back where they had left Zac.

"I am so hot!" Taylor complained.

"It's like 100 degrees!" Peachy added.

"I wanna go back to the house and jump in the pool," Isaac said.

"We have a pool?" Taylor and Peachy said at the same time.

"Where have you guys been? That house has everything."

"I'm going swimming," Taylor said cheerfully.

Peachy looked up and noticed Zac walking their way with a bag in his hand.

"Hey you guys," Zac said coming closer. "I know what it means! This book," he took a book out of the bag and held it for them to see, "has everything! It says that if I dream about my brothers full of energy, I will have cause to rejoice at my own or their good fortune. And you guys were full of energy in that dream. Then, about swimming, it says, is an augury of success if there is no discomfort in the act. Ike, I think you were comfortable. I know what that whole dream meant! Now, do you guys have any dreams to be interpreted?" Zac's smile grew.

"No," Taylor said, "and if I ever have one, I won't tell you, because you are a loser and that book is a bunch of crap."

"How do you know? The Gypsies were always right, huh?" Zac said.

"Zac, we know nothing about them!" Peachy said.

"Ugh! I hate you guys!" Zac shouted.

"Shhh, Zac. Let's go," Ike said turning his back and starting to walk away.

"Where are we going?" Zac asked.

"To find mom and dad," Isaac said looking for any member of his family.

The day was beginning to wind down when the Hanson family plus Peachy Warren piled back into the van and headed back home. Exhausted from the day, Mackie lay asleep, drool oozing out of his mouth and slight whimpers escaping his lips every now and then.

Shifting uneasily in his seat, Zac tried to bring his legs up to his stomach. In the process, he accidently kicked Isaac who was quietly reading a traveling brochure.

"Ow! Stop it Zac!" He said turning in his seat.

"I'm sorry," Zac apologized, finally getting his feet in the position he wanted.

"What are we gonna eat for dinner?" Taylor asked stifling a yawn.

"Make a sandwhich," Diana said gazing at the road in front of her. "We have some turkey breast and there's some potato bread. Ike you can drive up to the store and get a bag of chips or something."

"I'm not going anywhere," Isaac said glancing up from his brochure once again.

"Please, Ike, don't argue with me. It won't take you that long."

"So why don't you or dad do it?"

Walker took this oppurtunity to defend his wife. "She asked you, that's why."

Feeling defeated and out numbered, Isaac slumped in his seat and tossed his brochure out the window.

"Litter bug," Avery sang.

A smile errupted onto Zac's lips at the remeberence of the book he had bought that day. "Mom," he said, "I got this cool book today. It interprets dreams, and I had this dream about Taylor and Ike and it said all this cool stuff about it."

With closed eyes, Diana smiled. "That's nice Zac."

"If you need to know what your dreams mean, just tell me," Zac said proudly.

"I had this dream last night that you died," Jessica said, "What does that mean?" She challenged her brother.

"It means that you're gonna die too . . . only in real life," He said bitterly.

"You guys, I don't want you to start fighting, you hear? So stop now," Walker warned.

Zac straightened in his seat fully content on having the last word.

Jessica, not one to give up smiled at her brother. "You know, I was in line for some baby ride with Mackie and I heard this guy say Hanson sucked. And that you were fat."

"Yeah, I bet," Zac said, knowing all too well that she was telling a lie.

"Yep," she assured.

"Jessi, please stop," Taylor said.

"Well it's true," she said.

"So you don't have to tell us."

"I wasn't telling you, was I?" Jessica raised her voice.

"Who cares who you told! I just want you to stop!" he raised his voice to meet hers.

Jessica slumped back in her seat. "Why do you guys always have to be so mean to me?" she mumbled.

"You're the one who starts it! Every time! You always have to say something about Zac being fat, or about Hanson sucking. If you weren't such a bitch, we wouldn't be mean to you!"

"If you guys don't stop fighting, I will send you right back home, I am not kidding," Walker shouted from the front of the car. "I am not going to put up with listening to you three argue and name call." He said referring to Zac, Taylor and Jessica. "As soon as we get home, you two are to go straght to your rooms!" Taylor and Zac started to protest, "I don't want to hear shit from you!"

The car was silent. Nobody knew what to do. No conversations could be started up, nobody even knew what to talk about. Even Isaac, who had seen his dad explode everyonce in a while, had nothing to say. He just sat quietly like he had been doing before and tried his hardest to think of the last time his father had made him feel this much at a loss for words. Nothing came to mind.

The rest of the car ride home was silent.

Isaac grabbed the keys off the counter and headed out the door to the car. He had gave in and decided to do his parents a favor and go get chips. Only now, the list was longer and he was to buy ice cream and microwave popcorn.

He started the car and slowly backed out of the driveway, careful not to hit Mackenzies bike that had not been put away.

He couldn't understand why he was doing this. It seemed like nobody even cared what he was ever doing anyway. He would walk in the house at midnight and his parents would smile at him and ask him if he had a nice night. He would invite girls to come over and his mom wouldn't tease him. It seemed like his parents were trying not to be parents to him. He didn't want that. He wanted to get grounded when he came in drunk at three AM. The way his parents were treating him seemed like they didn't care.

But now it didn't matter. They were in Los Angeles for two months to record the new album. It wasn't until the break that he would even get to see all his friends in Tulsa. It sucked for him. He was just starting to make new friends and they had to pack up and leave. It was times like those that he wished there was no band. He wished he could just have a normal life and not have to put on a fake smile every time he went outside. He couldn't deny that he liked the attention from the girls. The girls were great. Everywhere they went there were girls practically kissing their feet. The fact that Taylor got a lot of the fan base didn't matter to him. The girls who liked him were more safe, in his opinion. Any girl who liked a guy who looked like a girl wasn't very safe.

Isaac pulled into the parking lot of the closest grocery store. He was glad it was pretty empty. Parking the car, he grabbed his wallet that was sitting next to him. He found it was much more comfortable to drive when there was no wallet in his pocket. He got out of the car and walked the short distance to the store. Other than a few second glances from some people, the coast seemed clear. His mission was to go in, grab the few items he needed and get out as soon as possible.

Every grocery store looks the same, Isaac thought. He followed the isles until he found the chips. He had completely forgotten to get a basket, but decided he'd just carry everything rather than go back to get one. He immediately grabbed the first bag of Lays Original he saw. Quite boring, but he wasn't going to be eating them. He did the same with the popcorn. Finding the ice cream was a little easier. He walked to the frozen foods isle and stopped at the ice cream section. He couldn't see anything. There was a group of girls debating over which flavor to get.

"I don't like sherbert," he heard one girl say.

"Well, we're getting two things of ice cream so it doesn't matter. Why don't we get Rocky Road, here, and orange sherbert," another girl who was leaning into the freezer said.

Isaac could imagine what would happen if they ended up being fans. He would have to run. He didn't really want to drop everything and run. Then, he would have to find a whole new store and have to do the same thing over again. It would ruin everything if they recognized him.

The girls continued to be engrossed in the ice cream selection.

"But what about Vanessa? She doesn't like chocolate ice cream," the first girl said.

"Then she can deal, because anybody who doesn't like chocolate ice cream obviously isn't a woman," the second girl grabbed the thing of ice cream and let the door slam shut.

A third girl just stood and watched. Isaac noticed that she didn't seem to be participating in the selection very much. She turned to see Isaac and smiled politely.

"Sorry," she said.

"Nah, it's fine. I'm in no hurry," Isaac said. His worry that he would have to run out of the store started to dissolve.

"I don't eat ice cream," she said, immediately wondering why she was sharing this with this stranger, but she continued, "I'm lactose intolerant."

Isaac smiled understandingly. He had no idea why she told him that piece of information though.

"Are you having a party?" Isaac asked. Anytime him and his friends got ice cream, it was usually because they were stoned. He had no idea what three girls were getting ice cream for.

"No," she smiled. "We just wanted some. We're all staying at my house tonight, so we thought it would fun to order a pizza and eat ice cream."

"But you're lactose intolerant. Pizza has cheese on it," Isaac pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but they want to, so I'm with them. I'll probably make myself something to eat at home. No big deal."

Isaac nodded in understanding.

"Okay Dan, lets go, we got what we want," the leader of the other two said. She had the orange sherbert ice cream in her hands.

"I gotta go," she smiled politely. "It was nice talking to you."

"Yeah, you too," Isaac smiled. This girl was incredibly sweet, he thought. "Hey, why don't you give me your number, and I'll give you a call."

She blushed a little, "Well, do you have a pen?"

"As a matter of fact . . ." He fumbled through his jeans with his free hand, " . . . I don't."

"Well, it's really easy to remember. 555-0110. I'm looking forward to talking to you. My name is Danielle."

"I'm Isaac, but you probably knew that," he had a smile on his face as she gave a look of confusion.

"Why would I know that?"

"Come on Danielle!" one of her friends called.

Isaac realized he had messed up. "Oh, nevermind. I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, Isaac," she said as she turned to leave.

"Yeah, bye," he called after her. God I am such an idiot! I should have known! He grabbed the ice cream his family had requested and went on his way.